Blessed and Holy

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God” (I Cor. 6:9,10). “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19-21). “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them” (Eph. 5:1-7). “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Col. 3:4-10). “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him… He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. .. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now” (I Jn. 2:3,4,6,9).

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure… Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (I Jn. 3:2,3,6-8). My friend, this is one very serious collection of scriptures that we are looking at here. I didn’t write any of them, but rather they were written by the apostles of Jesus Christ; and we know that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (II Tim. 3:16). I have merely copied and pasted them here for all to see plainly. Part of my job is to just get people to find out for themselves what is actually in the Bible. I can assure you that there is absolutely NOTHING in the Bible that would contradict these passages that are posted above. If there were, then that could only mean one of two things: Either the scripture is a lie that says “ALL scripture is given by inspiration of God,” or that God is confused. Neither of those things are true, but the scriptures ARE true. I would like to know how someone expects to confirm by the scriptures the idea of a believer in Christ remaining a sinner, and “going to heaven” even though they carry sin to the grave with them. No matter how someone tries to twist and turn certain passages to fit the idea of “sinners saved by grace,” they simply must erase the passages above, as well as the remainder of the Bible; in order to get their heretical point across. Sinners are saved by NOTHING, grace or otherwise. Those who are practicing sin are LOST, plain and simple; and need to be found, as the old hymn says. When a sinner comes clean before God with all their heart, and places all their faith in Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection; then Jesus Christ by ‘grace’ will baptize them with his HOLY Spirit and cleanse their inner man from sin (Jn. 7:38,39; I Cor. 6:11). That is the new birth or remission of sins, and that experience of faith in Jesus is what puts one into the body of Christ and makes them holy (I Cor. 12:13; II Cor. 5:17; I Pet. 1:15,16).

There is nothing that anyone can do to 'earn’ the remission of their sins, but rather they can only humble themselves to God, believe on his Son, and hope in his mercy. THAT is how grace works, because Jesus will ALWAYS answer that kind of faith and dependence on him, by baptizing every honest and needy soul with the soul-cleansing power of God from on high Lk. 24:49; Tit. 3:5). Being “saved by grace” means that one has gone through that channel and is remaining under that same soul-cleansing power, with the result being the capacity to “Walk in the Spirit, and… NOT fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Gal. 5:16). It takes real spiritual power to do that, and that is exactly what Jesus provides to those who WANT to do that. He said he would do that, and he DID do it (Acts 1:8; Rom. 1:16; I Cor. 4:20; I Pet. 1:5). A lot of folks need to know that there is more than one scripture in the Bible about grace. Like this one: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Tit. 2:11,12). This Gospel is real my friend, and those who are real with God experience his divine love, and peace, and power every day; because that is what they love, and that is what Jesus loves to provide them with - BY HIS GRACE! Nobody can earn these things, but neither can anyone be saved from the coming wrath of God if they are NOT experiencing these things on an ongoing basis. Every scripture that I have posted above says the same thing loud and clear, and anyone who would dare to refute the overt and constant truth of the scriptures is just wicked. Period. Trust me when I tell you that NOBODY who strains and strives to twist the holy scriptures to fit some flesh-pleasing mindset will be saved. Peter said the same: “As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (II Pet. 3:16). It will be exactly as Jesus said: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for THEY shall see God” (Mat. 5:8). And it will be exactly as the apostle Paul said when he echoed that saying: “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which NO MAN shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). And it will be exactly as the beloved apostle stated, as quoted above from 1 John 3:2,3; and also as he saw in the vision of “The Revelation:” “Blessed and HOLY is he that hath part in the first resurrection: ON SUCH the second death hath no power” (Rev. 20:6). So in conclusion I have to say that this powerful Bible truth about the grace of God brings me to absolute agreement with the apostle Paul’s sobering and comforting statement about that same grace of God: “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:28,29). Amen.